2. POVERTY
ISSUES
ADVISORY COMMITTEE - 2007 ANNUAL REPORT AND 2008 WORKPLAN
COMITÉ CONSULTATIF SUR LES QUESTIONS LIÉES À LA
PAUVRETÉ – RAPPORT
ANNUEL DE 2007 ET PLAN DE TRAVAIL 2008 |
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
That Council:
1. Receive the 2007 Annual Report of the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee as detailed in Document 1;
2. Approve the objectives contained in the 2008 Workplan, as detailed in Document 2.
RECOMMENDATIONS
DU COMITÉ
Que
le Conseil:
1.
reçoive
le Rapport annuel de 2007 du Comité consultatif sur les questions liées à la
pauvreté, tel que décrit à la pièce jointe n o 1;
2. approuve les objectifs qui sont
présentés dans le plan de travail 2008, tel que décrit à la pièce jointe n o 2.
DOCUMENTATION
1.
Chair, Poverty Issues Advisory Committee report dated
28 February 2008
(ACS2008-CCV-POI-0001).
2.
Extract
of Draft Minutes, 20 March 2008.
Report to / Rapport au :
and Council / et au Conseil
28 February 2008 / le 28 février 2008
Submitted
by/Soumis par: Chair, Poverty Issues
Advisory Committee/
Président,
Comité consultatif sur les questions liées à la
pauvreté
Contact / Personne-ressource : Melody Duffenais, Coordinator /
Coordonnatrice
580-2424, Ext. 20113, Melody.Duffenais@ottawa.ca
|
City Wide / À l’échelle de la ville |
Ref N° :
ACS2008-CCV-POI-0001 |
SUBJECT : POVERTY
ISSUES ADVISORY COMMITTEE – 2007 ANNUAL REPORT AND 2008 WORK PLAN
OBJET : COMITÉ
CONSULTATIF SUR LES QUESTIONS LIÉES À LA PAUVRETÉ – RAPPORT ANNUEL DE 2007 ET
PLAN DE TRAVAIL 2008
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
That the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee recommend that the Community and Protective Services Committee recommend Council:
1. Receive the 2007 Annual Report of the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee as detailed in Document 1;
2. Approve the objectives contained in the 2008 Workplan, as detailed in Document 2.
Que
le Comité consultatif sur les questions liées à la pauvreté recommande que le
Comité des services communautaires et de protection recommande que le Conseil:
1. reçoive le Rapport annuel de 2007 du
Comité consultatif sur les questions liées à la pauvreté, tel que décrit à la
pièce jointe n o 1;
2. approuve les objectifs qui sont
présentés dans le plan de travail 2008, tel que décrit à la pièce jointe n o 2.
Pursuant to their Terms of
Reference, each City of Ottawa Advisory Committees is required to report
annually, through its respective Standing Committee, with respect to its Annual
Report and its workplan for the following year. The purpose of the Advisory Committee’s workplan is to identify
the activities the Committee plans to undertake in the upcoming year and
whether or not these have a budgetary impact.
Each activity should be identified, a brief description of the project
or activity should be provided.
The Lead Department
Representatives are to provide the Committee with information on the
departmental workplan and priorities, where the Committee’s workplan ties into
the Department’s workplan, and where the Committee can assist the
Department. The Lead Department
Representative will also advise on what staff and/or financial resources are
available as part of the departmental priorities.
There was no funding approved for the advisory committee 2008 workplans.
DISCUSSION
The Poverty Issues Advisory Committee’s
Terms of Reference include the requirement to produce an annual work plan. The work plan is a means to establish
projects, activities and initiatives that will take place the following year.
At its meeting of 15 January 2008, the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee (PIAC) approved its 2007 Annual Report and 2008 Workplan. The final versions of these documents can be found at Documents 1 and 2 of this report, respectively.
The
mandate of the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee is to provide advice to Ottawa
City Council, through
the Community and Protective Services Committee, and its Department, on issues
that impact and address poverty in the City.
The
Community and Protective Services (CPS) Department appreciates the advice and
support received from PIAC in 2007 on issues
that impact the City’s low income residents such as access to affordable
housing and publicly funded oral health care.
The CPS
Department supports PIAC's 2008 workplan, with its continued objectives of
networking with other relevant groups to identify and find solutions to
poverty related issues and outreach to low income residents to ensure they have
a voice.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no financial impacts from this report.
Document
1 – 2007 Annual Report
Document 2 – 2008
Workplan
Document 3 – Poverty Issues Advisory Committee Terms of
Reference (held on file)
DISPOSITION
The Advisory Committee will work to complete the workplan tasks approved by City Council.
DOCUMENT 1
Poverty Issues
Advisory Committee
Annual Report 2007
Over the past year the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee (PIAC) has struggled with a severely reduced membership. In the face of expected attrition, lack of reserve members and in particular, deferred recruitment, PIAC has pursued its mission to provide Council with well considered recommendations in our common battle against poverty in Ottawa. We are pleased to present our Annual Report for 2007 and Workplan for 2008.
PIAC renewed its recommendation to CPSC and Council that basic dental care be restored to adults on social assistance and further that Council lobby federal and provincial governments to develop a publicly funded oral health care strategy that address the needs of all Canadians.
Based on presentations from three recipients of ODSP and the release of the City of Ottawa Housing Strategy, PIAC put forward to CPSC and Council, two motions recommending that ODSP rates be increased annually by the inflation rate and that a panel of disabled persons and their advocates be included in any investigation into the planning and delivery of housing and support services. This panel would also investigate the feasibility of a disabled person choosing his/her own caregiver.
An appeal from Residential and Support Services in the Housing Branch resulted in PIAC recommending that Council call upon the relevant Ministries of the Provincial Government to rectify subsidized housing and homelessness issues with sufficient and flexible funding.
PIAC has developed closer ties with other Advisory Committees; namely, the Health and Social Services Advisory Committee, the Seniors Advisory Committee and the Rural Issues Advisory Committee. Information is exchanged, motions in common are supported and members attend each other’s meetings.
Various presentations were made to PIAC over the year; for example a new aide organization that collects and distributes furniture to recently arrived refugees; introduced their presence in our community. PIAC also receives information from City staff in the form of a presentation on a number of issues important to our work. A member from PIAC was chosen to participate in the Community Project Funding Program where annual granting to non-profit organizations was decided.
PIAC members have participated in a number of Community Organizations and activities this year. These are Poverty Awareness Week, Dossier Hydro, Just Food, and the Anti-Poverty Forum – “Rethinking Poverty” to name a few.
The bulk of the additional work of research, recording and reporting back to PIAC was done by the Adequate Income and Support Sub-Committee (AI&S). Members have dedicated extra time to do this important work. Their report for 2007 follows.
AI&S has spent most of its efforts this year on acquiring and reviewing studies and reports on the working poor from a wide variety of sources. As well, meetings were had and contacts made with individuals familiar with different aspects of the issue through their work, for their input. However, opportunities to meet directly with actual representatives of the working poor are very limited as they generally also suffer from a poverty of free time. We have begun to make contacts with organizations that offer employment support to different target groups, and we hope to be able to piggyback on some of their events to speak directly with the working poor in attendance.
For a more comprehensive understanding of the issue and to be able to make targeted recommendations we have been looking at as wide a range of identifiable groups whose numbers include those who are working but still poor. These would include recent immigrants and new Canadians, Aboriginals, single and two parent families, youth and seniors seeking to supplement their income, rural residents, including farmers and related workers. We have also included those who are self-employed, whether operating a small business, dependant on contract or freelance work or make their living through the creative arts. In each case we will be looking at all aspects of life that are impacted by their low income as well as the programs available, designed to relieve their situation and how effective they are.
Since establishing linkages to include rural input into our study represents the most logistically difficult part of the task, PIAC member Hope Suggett, herself a rural resident, was appointed to approach the Rural Issues Advisory Committee (RIAC) to request their assistance.
Her presentation to RIAC during their July 17th , 2007 meeting gave a brief overview of PIAC’s history and the results of several important reports presented and approved by Council, including their influence beyond the city.
RIAC was told Adequate Income and Support’s current compilation of information on problems of the working poor and that many of these issues extended into the rural areas and therefore RIAC was asked to help identify specific rural issues.
To illustrate just one problem; reference was made to a largely hidden “Issue-Hunger”. She quoted from the Canadian Association of Food Banks’ 2006 Annual Report, that although many Canadian rural communities are located in prime agricultural areas; more than 60,000 food bank users in 2006 came from rural communities of less than 75,000 people. As well it was pointed out that some rural communities in Ontario have a hunger rate three times the entire Provincial average.
RIAC was very responsive to our request and appointed Sue Cannon as their representative to liaise with PIAC’s AI&S Sub-Committee to help identify and compile issues of the rural working poor.
Since her appointment Sue Cannon has met with AI&S and has begun to establish contacts with individuals and agencies in rural Ottawa to help us in our task.
AI&S has also met with Claude Beauchamp, Director of the Eastern Ottawa Resource Centre and established an agreement to work together on the rural component of this issue.
As our sub-committee members are few, we hope to engage volunteers to assist in gathering and reviewing data. To ensure that data is easy to understand and properly recorded, we are developing a general form that will allow us to determine those issues that are unique to a particular group, shared by more than one group or affect all groups.
We continue to monitor the growth in support for a comprehensive national oral health strategy and we are encouraged by the growing number of health agencies and other bodies in support of the concept of universal access of both preventive and treatment services to all Canadians.
We feel that Council’s support of our recommendations on this issue and its subsequent lead on a similar motion to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has played a valuable role in this increase in attention to the problem and in some way to the Provincial Liberal Government’s pledge to extend dental coverage to the working poor.
We continue to have informal contact with Dr. Ian McConnachie, President of the Ontario Dental Association, who met with us when we worked on our recommendations to Council. His Association has taken steps to improve access of seniors and long term care residents to dental care and is currently seeking to do the same for children of low-income families. Dr. McConnachie has indicated that he would like to meet with us again in the not too distant future to share information and ideas.
School Fees
In monitoring the effect of our recommendations on school fees, there is anecdotal evidence that there have been fewer requests for fees in some schools this year; however they still continue to be a problem.
At a full day workshop on the topic organized by the Social Planning
Council of Ottawa, parents, community workers, educators, representatives of
school boards and one of our members met to develop strategies to address the
problem.
Some of the ideas to come out of the workshop included an information campaign to inform parents of what they should not be charged fees for under the provincial Education Act, a linking with other municipalities in a joint lobbying effort. A working group was also struck to draft a letter to the provincial government urging them to fully fund those course necessities for which fees are being charged as well as to explore the feasibility of a class action suit similar to the one in B.C. that outlawed the charging of school fees.
Basic Needs Strategy
AI&S continues to follow up progress on implementation of the Basic
Needs Strategy.
The Poverty Issues Advisory Committee hereby submits our 2007 annual report and looks forward to having a renewed membership in May to continue to assist Council in the continuing battle of poverty eradication in our communities.
DOCUMENT 2
POVERTY ISSUES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
2008 WORKPLAN
Mandate
|
Objectives |
Activities |
How are we going to work |
Resources |
|
The
mandate of the Poverty Issues
Advisory Committee (PIAC) is: -To
provide advice to Ottawa City Council, through Community and Protective
Services Committee (CPSC) and its departments, on issues that impact and
address poverty in the city. |
-To
work towards the elimination of poverty by collaborating with City officials
to ensure that poverty related goals set out in Ottawa’s 20/20 vision are
met. To contribute to Beyond Ottawa 20/20-planning for the future, to keep
the elimination of poverty as a priority for as long as necessary. -To
hear from members of the public through various forums and bring forward
poverty-related issues, which are not in keeping with the goals of Ottawa’s
20/20 vision or that will help guide planning for the Beyond Ottawa 20/20, to
develop long-term solutions. -To
inform members of the public, groups working on poverty issues and low-
income residents that through PIAC, they have a voice, a way to bring their
concerns to the attention of City Council and to encourage and support them
in being heard. -To
network with community and provincial groups to identify issues, find
solutions and work towards the eradication of poverty in our city and further
to set examples for others. -To
bring to the attention of the City Council, its relevant standing committees
and departments, issues which affect those living in poverty; our most
vulnerable citizens; and work to develop viable solutions. -To
hear presentations from City staff, other agencies and community groups about
the services they provide and issues concerning low-income communities. PIAC
will take any requested action within the scope of its mandate under
consideration. -To
interact with other Advisory Committees, their chairs and members as often as
possible and to exchange information on work and priorities and to present
jointly developed recommendations to Council. -To
cooperate with emerging groups working on poverty related issues and to offer
advice and direct them to community resources for support in their
development. |
PIAC will continue to
monitor and follow-up on the three main issues that it has brought forward
and have been approved by Council. These and the areas of on going attention
are as follows: -Dental care School fees -Basic Needs Including Utilities -Working poor |
-Continue
to work with community groups to increase attention and support for a
comprehensible National Oral Health program -Monitor the provincial
government’s election promise to extend dental health coverage to the working
poor and advise Council to intervene if implementation becomes delayed. -Pursue having more needed
dental care services restored to adults on social assistance and dental care
for seniors living only on basic government pensions. -Work where possible with
the recently formed Ontario Oral Health Alliance in support of a unified call
for universal access to oral health care. -Continue to work with the
community school fees advisory group, that came together as an out come of
our recommendations to Council, in their multilingual information campaign to
parents to inform them of what school fees they should not be charged for
under the Provincial Education Act. As well as support efforts to end the
practice of charging these fees. -These
areas will continue to be monitored through progress reports and as needed a
committee member will meet with the relevant staff. -We
will continue to work on identifying problems, issues and gaps in services
that keep the working poor in poverty. We are developing a data collection
grid for sub-committee members and volunteers to systematically record
information relevant to our research. Each person will take one of the
categories of working poor, i.e. single parents, new Canadians, youth, the
self employed etc; and rate how their low income impacts on various aspects
of their lives, programs intended to assist them, overlaps with other
categories etc. -PIAC will focus on
specific issues that impact the working poor such as minimum wage, housing, childcare a pharmacare
policy, the cost of transportation, rural services etc. |
PIAC
|
POVERTY ISSUES ADVISORY COMMITTEE -
2007 ANNUAL REPORT AND 2008 WORKPLAN
COMITÉ CONSULTATIF SUR LES QUESTIONS LIÉES À LA
PAUVRETÉ – RAPPORT ANNUEL DE 2007 ET PLAN DE TRAVAIL 2008
ACS2008-CCV-POI-0001 CITY
WIDE / À L'ÉCHELLE DE LA VILLE
Cliff Gazee, Chair, Poverty Issues Advisory Committee (PIAC) spoke of current membership and selection process for 2008 and of inter-advocacy committee achievements, highlights and mechanisms. He made the following additional comments:
· Because of the income of the members, they may receive agenda material late because they do not have access to a computer and must rely on regular mail to receive documentation
· There is a delay in reimbursing members for attending meetings, i.e., child care, bus tickets, parking, mileage, et cetera and this is a hardship for those who have out-of-pocket expenses the night of a meeting
· Suggested that each advisory committee have an internal newsletter and liaise more frequently with each other
In response to a query by Councillor Holmes about the announcement from the province regarding poverty matters such as better dental care for low-income families, Mr. Gazee stated that initially the province was looking at funding for the working poor but then realized that teenagers and children were involved and it was his hope the PIAC would be involved in the process to facilitate the delivery of the program once the City had a better idea of the funding.
Aaron Burry, Dental Officer of Health added that until the City sees what the province is actually proposing and what Ottawa’s share of that funding will be, it is difficult to say at this time how the program will be rolled out. He cautioned that the funding is not going to go a long way given the amount of money being proposed over an entire province, but stated it should improve access to low-income children up to the age of 18.
That the
Poverty Issues Advisory Committee recommend that the Community and Protective
Services Committee recommend Council:
1. Receive the 2007
Annual Report of the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee as detailed in
Attachment 1;
2. Approve the
objectives contained in the 2008 Workplan, as detailed in Attachment 2.
CARRIED